Step # 1
We admitted that we were powerless over our drug and/or alcohol usage---- that our lives had become unmanageable.
II Corinthians 12:9
Each time He said, "My grace is all you need....My POWER works best in weakness". So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the POWER of Christ can work through me.
Boy, we hate to admit that we are powerless, don't we?
We hate to say the words....let them roll off our tongue, and hear them with our own ears...."I am powerless". We'll do anything to keep from admitting such. We shift the blame for our destructive lifestyle to others. "Well, you made me drink!" And on and on the accusations flow for the place we find ourselves in, rather than just coming to the cold hard fact that we are the one responsible for the mess we have made.
Now when we admit that we can't stop using....that a pretty plain argument that we won't win. I'm not so sure that this is the part of being powerless that we need to focus on. Maybe we should look to the fact that we are incapable of turning to a new way of living, that our being powerless is more about our inability to change than it is to stop.
I'm not trying to split hairs here....
Powerless is powerless not matter how you look at it....
But I have seen hundreds (if not thousands) who recognize they have an addiction problem, but refuse to admit that they cannot change on their on. change through shear self will and grit. Oh, we all have the stories of those rare individuals who have managed to somehow "White-knuckle" it through life. But recovery is so much more than the absence of drugs or alcohol. Recovery is about "recovering" real life in Christ. Did you catch that? Real life in Christ? Not real life in some religion.....or even in Church. I don't go to church to find life....I go to church to hang out with some like minded folks who encourage me to keep on this journey of life. I go to church to worship the very One who has given me this new opportunity to live again.
The apostle Paul said it best in the II Corinthians passage.
"God's strength is made perfect, and revealed for all to see when I admit and embrace the very fact that I am weak!" When I turn loose of trying to run my life...to move toward this new life of recovery that everyone has been telling me about, that is the start. But the real deal kicks in when after admitting that I am powerless, I accept the person and power of Jesus into my very being. The admission of my mess-making ability and the sad fact that I have done this destruction on my own...I am responsible...is all part of the admission of being powerless. I wish I could explain this whole process of admission of powerless and the infusion of power from a someone greater than ourselves, but I can't. I really believe it is something that each of us have to take on faith, then see it work in our own lives.
I just know this....
The process of powerless into powerful to overcome addiction is real.
It has given life here and life eternal to millions of people over the years.
Might be worth taking a look at.
God on you....
mbb
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